Things Aren't Always What They Seem
by SpencerRemyLvr
Summary: "September twenty fifth wasn't a special day. There was no holiday, no birthday that needed celebrated. No case was being worked on by the BAU at that time. It was just a plain, boring, ordinary Saturday."


_So, this is what happens when cr8zymommy and I get together and have a 'plot party' and start discussing her story "Time". What you're about to read is completely inspired by that and I have her permission to post this. In fact, she helped write a bit here or there. This is the product of two crazy minds, folks._

_Warning listed at the end. Jump ahead if you a warning and don't mind the spoiler!_

* * *

September twenty fifth wasn't a special day. There was no holiday, no birthday that needed celebrated. No case was being worked on by the BAU at that time. It was just a plain, boring, ordinary Saturday. One that each member of the BAU team planned to enjoy quietly and peacefully after the recent deluge of cases. They all holed up in their respective homes as a storm raged outside, soaking the city. Aaron Hotchner and his son Jack were huddled in the dark on their couch with a bowl of popcorn and Ninja Turtles on the TV. David Rossi was fixing dinner for a good woman whose company he often enjoyed. Jennifer Jareau was with her partner Will and their son Henry on a blanket in the living room with the lights dimmed low, enjoying a rainy day indoor picnic. Emily Prentiss was with Penelope Garcia, the two of them having an afternoon of movies, cookies, and laughter. Derek Morgan was curled up on his couch with his dog and talking on the phone with his family back home. It was a night of peace and relaxation for all of them—all except one.

For those people, September twenty fifth became a very special day, in one of the worst ways possible. It was the day that Spencer Reid died.

What would haunt them all the most later was that none of them had known what was happening until it was far too late. They had no idea until they turned on the morning news. For JJ, it was a moment she would never forget. The morning had started out like any other, waking up to the hugs and kisses of her two boys, and then out to make breakfast for them while she listened to two sets of laughter echo around her house. She turned the TV on out of force of habit, not out of any real need to watch the news, and she paid no real attention to it as she made her first cup of coffee and then drew out the eggs. All she was really thinking about was making up a bunch of scrambled eggs and maybe she should use the leftover bacon in the fridge before it went bad. She turned around, a carton of eggs in hand, and her eyes caught sight of the clips the newscaster was showing of the ruins of some building that had burnt down in the middle of the night. _"__The fire department has so far declined to give any official report of what they think caused this explosion here last night, but sources inside the department say that it looks to have been started by a gas leak."_

"Those poor people." JJ breathed out, focusing just a little more on the TV. She saw Will coming down the hall and she gestured with one hand to the TV. "Have you seen this? It looks like an apartment building blew up last night. They think it might've been a gas leak."

"_We have four confirmed deaths so far_." the reporter was saying as the camera panned out along what was left of the building. "_But there at seven others still left to be accounted for in the wreckage_."

Will stopped behind JJ, his eyes on the screen, and he sucked in a breath. His hands came up to rest on her shoulders. "Oh Lord, JJ…isn't that Spencer's building?"

The carton of eggs dropped from numb fingers to crash to the ground.

* * *

A frantic call to Aaron got things moving. Within forty minutes, each member of the BAU team had made their way to what was left of Spencer's apartment building. Aaron had arrived on scene first and he'd wasted no time in grabbing the first people he came across to demand some answers. He pulled his badge out the minute he stopped the man and held it up between them. "I'm SSA Aaron Hotchner and one of my subordinates lives in this building, a Dr. Spencer Reid. I need to know if he's been located."

The man he'd grabbed, a young firefighter, had no answers for him. "I'm sorry, sir, I don't know who's been pulled out yet. I'm just on cleanup here."

"Then find me someone that does." Aaron demanded.

While he waited for someone to come find him, he heard the squeal of tires behind him and knew before he'd even turned around that his team had arrived. He wasn't surprised to see Derek come rushing towards him. The man had probably broken countless speeding laws to get here this quickly. Derek ran right for him, wide eyes taking in everything around them with a look of absolute horror. He didn't waste any time, calling out to Aaron before he'd even reached him. "Have they found him?"

"I don't know." Aaron's sharp eyes ran around the scene again. "Someone's supposed to be coming to let me know shortly."

The same conversation was repeated three more times as first JJ, then Emily and Penelope, and finally Dave arrived. They still had no answers and Derek was getting ready to charge in and find someone, anyone, that could tell them, when finally someone came walking over towards them. One look at him and the profilers knew they weren't going to like what they heard. Penelope found herself clutching tightly to Derek's arm, a rock growing in the pit of her stomach. The other profilers all stood as if frozen, hard and cold as any statue. The man walking towards them, a local police officer, looked at their faces and hated what he was about to do. Thirty years on the force and it never got any easier. He stepped right up to the group and turned his attention to the one that was so obviously their leader. "Agent Hotchner?"

Aaron gave a sharp nod, his usual calm and control almost nonexistent. What little control he had he could feel was close to shattering at the look of sympathy on the man's face. Somehow he made his throat work. "What's the situation?" The calmness of his own voice stunned him. With what he felt inside, he had thought for sure his voice would come out brittle. Instead it was flat, almost emotionless.

Officer McCabe drew himself up and met the man's eyes as he said the words he knew would shatter these people's world. "It appears to have been a gas leak. What triggered it, we're not sure yet. There were eleven residents that were home at the time from what we understand. I'm sorry, Agent Hotchner, but there were no survivors." What came next was one of the hardest parts of his job. He reached down into his pocket and pulled out one item that he knew would make this real. "This was found by one of the bodies, sir. I'm so sorry for your loss."

It was Aaron who reached out and took the half charred item from McCabe's hand. The whole group watched as Aaron held it up for them to see. Penelope's low moan echoed around them and Derek had to clutch tightly to her to keep her on her feet, his own face a mask of shock and grief. Dave and Emily stared, stunned. But it was JJ whose reaction was the strongest. The sound that came from her was so full of pain and grief, a high keening cry that drew eyes of people all around and that would haunt more than a few people's nightmares for time to come. The absolute agony in it cut straight to the hearts of all that heard it.

She stumbled forward, snatching the item out of Aaron's hand, and no one was fast enough to stop her as she crumpled down to her knees on the ground. That painful sound tore from her once more as she clutched at the burnt remains of Spencer's credentials and mourned for the man who had become as close to her as family.

* * *

The official reports eventually determined that the fire to the building was accident, a gas leak that ended in an explosion. What set it off would remain a mystery. Not that it really mattered to the families who mourned those that were lost. It wouldn't have made their grief any easier to bear. It wouldn't lessen their suffering at all. For the BAU team, knowing that this was an accident actually seemed to make it harder. They had all always carried the fear and knowledge in their hearts that they might one day lose one another to the job. In their own way, each was prepared for that. They weren't prepared for this.

This wasn't some enemy that could be fought. There was no Unsub they could blame, no case to work. There was no rhyme or reason to it. This was simply a horrible, awful accident that took the life of someone so very dear to them and snuffed it out before its time. Twenty eight years old—Spencer had been only twenty eight. He hadn't even lived to reach his thirtieth birthday. His friends not only mourned the loss of their friend, they mourned the loss of all the things he might've accomplished. All of the things he could've yet done with that brilliant mind of his that was so unlike any other they'd ever seen. They mourned the loss of one of the sweetest men they had all ever known, who had lived his whole life only wanting to help people, no matter how many times he was beaten down and brought to his knees. Life had dealt him blow after blow and somehow he had always managed to get right back up, never staying down long. But not this time.

His death affected his friends in so many different ways. The lives of those closest to him were forever changed by his loss. Aaron became just a little harder, a little more closed off. He spoke to no one of his grief, a grief that was made worse months later when the Reaper ripped through his life. The loss of a young man he had thought of almost like a son and the loss of the woman that Aaron would always love ripped a whole in him that would never fully heal. He went back to his work, back on the job, but to any outside his team he was colder than ever before and he locked his emotions even further behind his shield, shutting himself off from getting any further attached to anyone else.

Dave kept his grief quiet and private, just as he always had. He kept himself busy in his job and in writing a new book. Work had always carried him through the pain. And six months later when his book was finished, there was a special dedication at the front of it, the only tribute he could offer. _'__This book is dedicated to Dr. Spencer Reid, one of the brightest minds I've ever had the pleasure of knowing, without whom this never would've been written. Know that, even though you're gone, the lessons you've taught will live on.'_

For Emily, the loss of Spencer brought a change to her in ways that she never would've expected. She'd tried so hard to hold herself aloof from this team while she was here, holding back and keeping herself separate from them, trying not to become too attached. But losing him had showed her just how attached she'd become without even realizing it. The months after showed her just how close she was with the others, building and cementing ties that she once would've denied or ignored, giving her a network of people that became more family then friend. And it was because of that, because of what she learned from the pain of that grief, that when Ian Doyle came into her life, Emily knew she didn't have to go it alone. She knew she didn't have to shoulder this burden alone. Where once she might've kept things to herself, gone after him on her own, she now did something that would've been impossible before—she opened to her team and asked for their help. They stayed by her and supported her, holding her together as she feared for her life and the lives of her friends, and they were still there when Ian Doyle was found in a warehouse with a single gunshot to the head.

Other good things were born from the ashes of this loss. Penelope and Derek clung to one another through the months of grief, calling on each other to make their way through this, holding each other up on the long, hard nights. In those nights, something was born that might not have otherwise ever been noticed or dared to be reached for. But life was too short, too precious, to waste anything good. They had learned through Spencer's loss that you never knew when someone was going to be taken from you. Eleven months after they buried their friend, Derek and Penelope wed in a small ceremony in Chicago, with only their family—BAU family included—in attendance.

Of them all, it was JJ who was hit the hardest. Spencer had been more than a close friend to her. He had been a friend, a brother, a confidant, and Godson to her only child. The cut of his loss ran deep inside of her and it was a wound she never quite healed from. Two months after his funeral, JJ turned in her resignation and she left the BAU. There was too much there for her, too many painful memories, and she couldn't bring herself to face them every day. She couldn't bring herself to walk past his desk every day. Nor did she have to. Thanks to Spencer's will, JJ wouldn't have to worry about working again for quite some time, if at all.

Spencer's will had stunned quite a few of them. He'd had only a few earthly possessions and those had been divvied up here and there, special items going to certain people. A set of books to Emily, a chess set and some books to Dave, his Doctor Who things to Penelope, a special quilt to Derek that held personal meaning to them both, a stack of personal books for Aaron, and some journals and random keepsakes for JJ and Henry. But it was the money that he'd split between them all that stunned them even more. Or, more, the sheer amount of it. He bequeathed a nice sized nest egg to each member of the team as well as two other accounts that were to go to Henry and Jack both, to fund their college education. _"__Because education is important_" Spencer had put into his will. _"__And it is the greatest gift that I can give them."_ To JJ, he had also gifted another account with the request to use it to "_Please take care of my mother for me. She won't understand the loss, so explaining it to her isn't necessary. Just use this to make sure she stays cared for and that she has what she needs. I know I can trust you with her." _And JJ did take care of her until two and a half years later when Diana passed away from a heart attack.

Spencer Reid left quite a legacy behind him. He left people who loved him and who would never forget him. He left his mark on their hearts and souls and the things that he'd taught them, things he hadn't even realized he was teaching, would stay with them for the rest of their lives. There was no greater legacy than that.

* * *

Three years passed since Spencer's death. The team, while they would never forget him, was finally starting to truly heal. They could speak of him now without the sharp pain of loss eating at them. They could work their cases without looking over their shoulder or finding themselves waiting for a hyper voice to start throwing in some random, obscure fact that seemed insane and yet would somehow end up being relevant.

It was just a week over the three year anniversary when Aaron Hotchner received a call in his office that would once again toss their lives upside-down.

When he finished the call, he sat at his desk for almost ten minutes, simply staring at the far wall, unable to comprehend what he'd just learned. It was the sound of someone knocking at his door that jarred him back to reality. He looked up to see Emily poke her head in through the door. "Hey, Hotch…" She paused in whatever it was she'd been about to say and her eyebrows furrowed down in concern. The door opened a little wider and she took a step inside. "Hotch, is everything okay?"

Aaron looked at her and he knew face was like an open book that was flashing grief and pain and joy in a mixture that would only worry her more, yet he couldn't control it. "Gather the team." He told her. "Tell everyone to meet me in the conference room. Now."

She didn't pause to question him. The look on his face had her nodding and moving quickly.

Five minutes later, the group was gathered inside the conference room. Dave, Emily, Derek, Penelope, and Sam, the newest member of their team who had only been with them for six months now. Aaron stood by the round table and watched as his team filed in, all of them watching him with curious and worried expressions.

"I just received a call from a police chief in Los Angeles." Aaron began in a voice that shook only slightly. He looked from one face to the next as he spoke, the emotion in his gaze keeping them silent. "Four hours ago, police responded to a call for a disturbance at a private residence. Dispatch said that there had been shots fired. When they arrived, they found four unconscious security guards and, inside the house, there were three men, one dead and two suffering from gunshots. One of the men that was alive had a GSW to the chest and he passed away in surgery about an hour ago. The other had a GSW to the arm and a gash to his thigh that they believe came from a knife that the other dead man was clutching. Right now, that man just left surgery and is in a recovery room with a prognosis that looks pretty good right now. Judging by the weapons on him, they're almost certain he's their killer."

"What's this got to do with us?" Dave asked, voicing what they were all thinking. "It sounds like an open and shut case, Aaron."

Now came for the hardest part. Aaron drew in a deep breath. "Because fingerprints ID him as a Dr. Spencer William Reid."

* * *

___Warnings: This is NOT a death-fic. I don't do those :/_

___I listed that here for the people who told me I shouldn't warn at the beginning as it spoils the story :)_

_So what do you think? Would you guys like to see more of this? :) For now, this is just a one-shot, but I might be persuaded to do more. Bear in mind, though, that if I continue this story, the next addition to it WILL put it in the X-Men universe, because I am very much a Remy/Spencer lover. Duh, I mean. check out my name :P So, let me know what you think, folks, and what you'd like to see! And if you DO Want to see more of this, feel free to PM me or put in your review what you'd like to see his powers be. Thanks, my lovely little sugar bees!_


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